第71章

'Oh, yes.I knew that.She wanted me to be useful, so of course I came.I shall stay here this week, and then be back in September.' Up to that moment Captain Gunner had not received any invitation for September, but then there was no reason why he should not do so.

'I've been getting up the archery code with her,' said Pountney, 'and I was pledged to come down and set it going.That little Gresham girl isn't a bad-looking thing.'

'Rather flabby,' said Captain Gunner.

'Very nice colour.She'll have a lot of money, you know.'

'There's a brother,' said the Captain.

'Oh, yes; there's a brother, who will have the Greshambury property, but she's to have her mother's money.There's a very odd story about all that, you know.' Then the Major told the story, and told every particular of it wrongly.'A man might do worse than look there,' said the Major.A man might have done worse, because Miss Gresham was a very nice girl; but of course the Major was all wrong about the money.

'Well;--now you've tried it, what do you think about it?' This question was put by Sir Timothy to Sir Orlando as they sat in a corner of the archery ground, under the shelter of a tent looking on while Major Pountney taught Mrs Boffin how to fix an arrow on to her bow string.It was quite understood that Sir Timothy was inimical to the Coalition though he still belonged to it, and that he would assist in breaking it up if only there was a fair chance of his belonging to the party which would remain in power.

Sir Timothy had been badly treated, and did not forget it.Now Sir Orlando had also of late shown some symptoms of a disturbed ambition.He was the Leader of the House of Commons, and it had become an almost recognized law of the Constitution that the leader of the House of Commons should be the First Minister of Crown.It was at least understood by many that such was Sir Orlando's reading of the laws of the Constitution.

'We've got along, you know,' said Sir Orlando.

'Yes;--yes.We've got along.Can you imagine any possible concatenation of circumstances in which we should not get along?

There's always too much good sense in the House for an absolute collapse.But are you contented?'

'I won't say I'm not,' said the cautious baronet.'I didn't look for very great things from a Coalition, and I didn't look for very great things from the Duke.'

'It seems to me that the one achievement to which we've all looked has been the reaching the end of the Sessions in safety.

We've done that certainly.'

'It is a great thing to do, Sir Timothy.Of course the main work of Parliament is to raise supplies,--and, when that has been done with ease, when all the money wanted has been voted without a break-down, of course Ministers are very glad to get rid of the Parliament.It is as much a matter of course that a Minister should dislike Parliament now as that a Stuart King should have done so two hundred and fifty years ago.To get a Session over and done with is an achievement and a delight.'

'No ministry can go on long on that far niente principle, and no Minister who accedes to it will remain long in any ministry.'

Sir Timothy in saying this might be alluding to the Duke, or the reference might be to Sir Orlando himself.'Of course, I'm not in the Cabinet, and am not entitled to say a word; but I think that if I were in the Cabinet, and I were anxious,--which Iconfess I'm not,--for a continuation of the present state of things, I should endeavour to obtain from the Duke some idea of his policy for the next Session.' Sir Orlando was a man of certain parts.He could speak volubly,--and yet slowly,--so that reporters and others could hear him.He was patient, both in the House and in his office, and had the great gift of doing what he was told by men who understood things better than he did himself.He never went very far astray in his official business, because he always obeyed the clerks and followed precedents.He had been a useful man,--and would still have remained so had he not been lifted a little too high.Had he been only one in the ruck on the Treasury Bench he would have been useful to the end;but special honour and special place had been assigned to him, and therefore he desired still bigger things.The Duke's mediocrity of talent and of energy and of general governing power had been so often mentioned of late in Sir Orlando's hearing, that Sir Orlando had gradually come to think that he was the Duke's equal in the Cabinet, and perhaps it behoved him to lead the Duke.At the commencement of their joint operations he had held the Duke in some awe, and perhaps something of that feeling in reference to the Duke personally still restrained him.The Duke of Omnium had always been big people.But still it might be his duty to say a word to the Duke.Sir Orlando assured himself that if ever convinced of the propriety of doing so, he could say a word even to the Duke of Omnium.'I am confident that we should not go on quite as we are at present,' said Sir Timothy as he closed the conversation.

'Where did they pick him up?' said the Major to the Captain, pointing with his head to Ferdinand Lopez, who was shooting with Angelica Thrift and Mr Boffin and one of the Duke's private secretaries.

'The Duchess found him somewhere.He's one of those fabulously rich fellows out of the City who make a hundred thousand pounds at a blow.They say his people were grandees of Spain.'

'Does anybody know him?' asked the Major.

'Everybody will soon know him,' answered the Captain.'I think Iheard that he's going to stand for some place in the Duke's interest.He don't look like the sort of fellow I like; but he's got money and he comes, and he's good-looking,--and therefore he'll be a success.' In answer to this the Major only grunted.

The Major was a year or two older than the Captain, and therefore less willing even than his friend to admit the claims of new comers to the social honours.